Perfect Nude

“Here’s a song with some nudity in it so any of the underage crowd will be asked to avert their eyes and ears.”﻿

-Introduction from a live performance on 12 Aug 2005

I’ve been living on the planet earthI’ve been willing to work for food.I have labored long beneath the sunAnd the premise that God is good.I could bring this news in another life,But it seems so perfectly brewed;I’m a naked man on a skeleton,Trying to paint the perfect nude.

When I was just a seed of the Universe,In the great galactic womb,I was nothing more than everythingIn the glimmering eye of the groom.Now I try to find some summary,For the dust that’s in my broom.I’m a naked man on a skeleton,With these angels right here in my room.

Chorus:I been hungry.I been homesick.I been howling at the moon.I been rearranged and my heartHas been changed,Just from running the riskOf my ruin.I’m a naked man –Just an alien,I’ll be breaking through someday soon.

In a cornfield in New Mexico,Far beneath the cobalt blue;You can hear it stir like a whispered prayerAnd its more than a mouthful to chew.I just like to open up myself,And laugh as it passes on through.I’m a naked man on a skeleton,And I’m saving this message for you.

When the flesh is good,It’s epiphany —But it’s so often misunderstood.When it all goes south to pornography —It’s goodbye old, sweet neighborhood.But it’s all right there inside of your heart,When you choose between poison and foodFor the naked man on the skeleton,Trying to paint the perfect nude.